By Komal Ganotra:
We don’t currently have a copy of the new bill, however according to various media reports it is clear that the cabinet has approved the amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act. One of the major amendment approved by the cabinet includes treating juveniles between the age of 16 to 18 years as adults in cases of committing heinous offences. This particular change has taken place despite of clear recommendation of the parliamentary standing committee and members of the civil society opposing the particular clause. This is likely to have great implications and has the potential to challenge the whole justice paradigm for children – moving away from reformative to punitive. Through the change in the proposed Bill, children may be forced to spend their formative and productive years behind bars, rather than being reintegrated with society.
In India, the juvenile crime from the period 1990 to 2012 ranged between 0.5 to 1.2 per cent of total crimes committed. Juvenile crimes were only 1.2 per cent in 2012 and 2013 as compared to the child population of 472 million in 2013. Further analysis shows that out of the total number of juvenile cases, 79% belonged to families whose annual income levels were below Rs. 50,000/- , a telling fact that gives us an insight into their lives and struggles. Only 5,812 have completed their secondary education; 8,392 have never been to school, while almost equal proportions have studied at primary and above primary levels (13984 and 15423 respectively). The emphasis therefore at a systemic level, needs to be much more in terms of preventive policies and mechanism that can ensure a protective environment for each child.
About the author: Komal Ganotra is Director, Policy Research and Advocacy, CRY-Child Rights and You
Cees Tompot
It is quite clear that human brains are not full-grown till we reach the age of 20 for girls and 23 for boys. (averages of course.) One of the consequences is that we not always can link action and result of the action on beforehand. A adolescent just is not an adult. Then, what are the results of putting youngsters away? Will they come out better or will they be even more frustrated and deprived of chances? Of course I don’t say that they should be pampered, not at all. But punishment has to be in accordance with the crime and with the person of the criminal. The temporary satisfaction of revenge never can compensate for the harm done to the criminal youngster when put in jail amongst adult criminals.
shiv vasisht
At what age does a child arrive into maturity? The UN demands that the minimum age be fixed at 18, even though different countries have their own norms. In Germany, the minimum age is 16 for all matters related to sex, and not 18 as would be the case in the rest of the world. In France, because the law prohibits incarceration of the under-18, it has led to making the young the preferred drug carriers for the underworld.
Why are we so hung up on 18 being the age of adulthood, when we ourselves are guilty of treating anybody old enough to work as an adult, be it the chai-boy at the dhaba in the neighborhood, or the servant at home. Why don’t we go shouting out with articles like these when we know that immigrant (slum and pavement dwellers’) children, as young as 10-11 years old, are being exploited by their own, and by the city dwellers of their new homes every day? At what age do these children learn of the facts of life, and at what age do we declare that they are still innocent children, who can be reformed? The boy who did the greatest harm to the December 16 rape victim – by enticing her into the bus, and later by pushing a metal rod into her anus at the end of her ordeal, with the words, “mar, saali”, was the youngest of them all, a juvenile short of a few months of “adulthood”. Why should he still be treated any differently from any of the others?
Such articles that speak with shock about the innocence of children – till they are 18, at least – reek of an absolute lack of understanding of present societal realities, and of basic adolescent growth, per se.
An experiment in the 1960s in New York, aimed at instilling fear into juveniles in custody, involved taking them to “adult” prisons, where they were thrown a scare by the inmates did more to change their mindset than any moral logic. In a country where the average age is dropping to among the lowest in the world, it is high time we decided what is really the age of “adulthood”.